Flower Fairies
by gwinflora
Summary: This is a story based on the Flower Fairy Books. They are quite famous but only exist as pictures in books, on tea cups, shirts, statuettes etc. So this is a go at writing a story about them and their personal relationships...


**Fauna a Flora**

**Springtime**

Spring was coming again. Dreary Winter, with its white snowflakes and its hidden paths was gone, the white had melted and the newly born green grass was stirring in the meadows behind the village. After sitting at the fireside all Winter, hearing tales of other times, eating fruitcake and sleeping when dark came early, the children of the village ran out of their houses, full of joy and awaiting the play under the milky yellow sun. Their faces wrought with happiness, as they found their friends, holding hands, they went up to the meadows. As they crossed the streets, old women with wrinkled faces, looked out of their doorways and remembered their own childhood and gardeners winked at them, where they were already working beyond the fences on the hewn earth of mothers garden, when the children waved wildly.

The long meadows beside the woods were green again and between the long stems of grass the first crocus flowers were opening, nursing the flame in their cup. As the singing of the children reached them, they felt the need to sing as well, to bring the life back into the frozen trees. And so, while all around wild life woke up, the elves yawned, too, and stretched and decided to leave their winter cover. They sprang out of the crocus flowers and danced about the meadow, kissing each petal and stroking each flame they came upon.

Through the rows of colourful crocus flowers and the rows of happiness came running one small elf. He did not see himself as small this year any more, he had reached the age of nine, and that was quite old, but as he had made this remark at the age of eight the year before, it didn't mean much. The little boy, with curly orange hair, pointed ears and an ever smiling face ran up to one of the yellow crocus's and tapped at its petal with his little white fist. From within the yellow crocus there came a yawning and a girls voice asked sleepily:

"Is it already time? Or are you just wild to make it time?"

The boy shook his head, that his orange curls rattled and stamped on the ground with his velvet covered foot. But the fairy girl within could not see this answer, so he piped up in his small, boyish voice:

"It is time, you know. It is – springtime!"

Slowly the petals opened and a white face with green eyes and gold flowing hair appeared. The face was about to say annoyed that it was much to early, but seeing the other fairies dancing, seeing the buds wide open, feeling the sun on her shoulders and the flame in her cup bursting into life, she changed her mind, and from one moment to the other she was wide awake and jumped out of her yellow crocus. She looked the boy up an down. He was wearing a mauve velvet suit, its cuffs were patched with gold, a white, shimmering vest he wore over it and his see through wings were tinged with mauve. He looked at her, wearing a long, golden-yellow dress, that was more like a sack, wide at the arm, and the legs, but folded neatly around her neck. The boy looked over the yellow crocus, let his hands flow through the flame and whispered:

"You've got an especially nice crocus this year, sister!"

The sister tugged at her dress, shook her golden hair and said smugly:

"Well, I am thirteen this year, I am now a teenager and will become forthwith the most beautiful flowers!"

The boy turned around to her, pulled his eyebrows together and said spitefully:

"Maybe the long-sleepers, that miss the dances, get the most beautiful flowers. You could be the living proof, Yellow!"

Yellow ruffled through his curly hair, determined not to be angry with her little brother. So she laughed and turned to look upon the other dancing fairies.

"Look, the singing is beginning, little brother Mauve. We don't want to miss it, do we?"

Instead of saying 'It would be your fault entirely' Mauve followed her to the ranks of Crocus Fairies and as they became still, he bent forward like his sister, held one leg aloft, every arm in the air. And then they began. They span in circles around each crocus, took the hands of others and danced with them. They clapped and whipped around in the rhythm of the music, that came from nowhere and all together they sang aloud:

Crocus of yellow, new and gay;

Mauve and purple in brave array;

Crocus white

Like a cup of light, ---

Hundreds of them are smiling up,

Each with a flame in its shining cup,

By the touch of the warm and welcome sun

Opened suddenly, Spring's begun!

Dance then, fairies, for joy, and sing

The song of the coming again of spring.

Over and over they sang this, dancing over the meadow, a ray of sunshine alighting the wild flowing mauve, yellow, purple and white fairy-dresses. Mauve and Yellow danced out of the ranks to the edge of the wood, the skipped over the smaller crocus's looking around, so as not to miss anything. At last they stopped, well out of breath and laughed as they looked back over the meadow.

"Are you never scared that our peaceful world could be broken!", Mauve asked uncertainly.

Yellow stared at him for a moment, then she smiled and said:

"Every time I notice how lucky we are to live here with the crocus flowers I am at the same time scared that we could loose it. But come on, there is no time for being sad now, for it is springtime!"

The Colt's–Foot Fairy:

Mauve and Yellow now turned from the meadows and gazed into the dark wood. Around them tall beech trees arose, but they only saw the large tree trunks, dark brown and aged with wrinkles and every winter they had had to endure. The ground now was lifting, the earth very still, for it had not been moved for a long time. In the inner shade of the trees Yellow and crocus saw only darkness and around them green-leafed bushes cut of the view. Dust flew over the earth towards them, as through the leaves of a bush a figure came, not much taller then they were, carrying two flowers in its hands. It fought its way through the brambles, tugging at its long, grey wings and came up to them, but halted only a few feet away.

"Colt's Foot!", Yellow whispered in a longing voice.

Her body urged to run up to him and through her arms around him, but she stood still next to Mauve. Colt's Foot carried two of his flowers with him, they were yellow and orange and dark green there stems. Dark green were the boys robes, too. He wore a wide, green pullover, buttoned together with grass, his arms were fast around his flowers. Around his waist there fell long strings of reddish weed, beneath he only had a green leggings on and his feet were covered by green shoes, with red straps. The only light colour about him was his straw-like hair, a dark gold, and his lips were red like his cheeks, from walking a long way through the still sleeping cold forest, just to see Yellow. But before he came up to them, he just looked at the two and sang in a low, but very moving voice:

The winds of March are keen and cold;

I fear them not for I am bold.

I wait not for my leaves to grow;

They follow after: they are slow.

My yellow blooms are brave and bright;

I greet the spring with all my might.

He finished his song and added with a very faint smile on his face:

"And I greet thy Yellow and Mauve, too!"

Now Yellow could not hold herself any longer, she flew over the damp soil towards Colt's Foot, who stepped back, opening his eyes wide, but before he new it, her arms were around his waist and she was whispering:

"It's so good to see you again after the long, dying winter!"

Colt's Foot smiled wearily again and took her arms from his waist, not forcefully, but with a significant look upon his eyes. Yellow smiled and stood before him, not sure what to say or do. She knew Colt's Foot Ways by now, he was slow to move on and it had already taken her years to make friends with him, he was quite the trust up, thoughtful type of boy, but now that she had given her love to him, she could not back away. Mauve came up to them and greeted Colt's Foot sheepishly. He sniggered at his sisters red face, but kept his remarks to himself.

"How was the winter for you?", Yellow managed to ask.

Colt's Foot waited along time, before he answered, as he always did. He laid his head between the two steams of the flowers and said:

"It was very cold. I didn't meet many out in the woods on my wanderings, they all tug up nicely in their flowers. But I couldn't do that, I had to wander about and feel the snow cracking under my feet and see the light burning in the trees."

Yellow and Mauve swapped significant looks, for they did not love the winter and didn't understand how Colt's Foot could find it interesting. Colt's Foot gazed unblinkingly into Yellows eyes and said then very slowly:

"I come to walk with you through the forest, Yellow. Will you join me?"

Yellow wasn't sure she liked the dark forest, but with Colt's Foot at her side, she knew it would wake up and the spring would travel with her. So she nodded and Colt's Foot lay down his flowers beneath an withering tree trunk and they stood quite motionless for a while. Then Mauve ventured to ask:

"Will you then allow me to visit Willow Catkin, while you are gone. I know it is rather early to walk around the fields alone, but then the forest is dangerous, too!"

Yellow smiled and nodded again.

"But be sure that you are back before nightfall and don't disturb young Willow if he still wants to sleep!"

She knew he would disturb him, like he had disturbed her, but it didn't matter, she only knew that she had to pay her duties of looking after him. Mauve grinned happily, bayed them Good-bye, turned and ran back to the meadows, across the earth, between the beeches. Yellow looked after him, still wearing a smile. Then Colt's Foot reached for her hand, put hers' in his and pulled her towards him. They looked at each other and then they turned and walked into the forest, across the earth, between the beeches.

The Willow–Catkin Fairy:

Mauve ran along the edge of the forest, not looking into its dark heart but keeping his eyes fixed on the path before him, looking up once and twice over the meadows. After he had made his way around the outer forest he came to an orchard, where the Sallow Willows stood in circles, all very beautifully covered in silky Catkins, there twigs thin and brown. Mauve left the shadow of the trees and came running over the field, jumped across the big tufts of grass, looking forward to see his best friend again. At last he had come into the circles of Willows, all around him the silky bunches of Catkins were. He looked about for one of the smaller trees, ran up to it and shouted into its bows:

"Willow, are you there? It's me, Mauve! Spring has come and we've awakened. Awake too, or you'll miss it!"

For a moment it was still, but for the wind creeping up the meadows and rustling in the grass, but then a rustling came from within the twigs and branches and a very small, sleepy face showed itself between the Catkins. Willow pulled out an arm and waved, then he ripped of a twig, stroked the silk upon it and pulled himself out of the bow. He slipped along the tree trunk and landed neatly on the grass beside Mauve, still holding his twig aloft, looking up into his tree, then turning to his friend.

"Hello, Mauve Crocus!", he said sweetly and quietly.

Mauve looked upon him, he was several inches smaller than he himself and three years younger he was too. Willow wore yellow tights, but over them he had blue grey shorts, the same colour as his vest, that he had tucked into the shorts. The vest had a hood as well and this hood Willow had pulled over his head, that only a few strings of light brown hair fell over his forehead. His wings were yellow and blue tinged, and hung down airily, he was still not able to fly and it grieved him very much, though he did not show that. His manner was always quiet and friendly, he was sweet to his friends and had no enemies, his face was still very young and smooth.

Mauve waited, for it was a custom to hear the song of ones friend, when one saw him for the first time after the winter. Catkin swung his twig and began, laughing all along, and happy, that even he, six years old as he only was, had his own song.

The fairies call me Palm, they do;

They call me Pussy–willow too.

And when I'm full in bloom, the bees

Come humming round my yellow trees.

Oh, you may pick a piece, you may

(So dear and silky, soft and grey);

But if you're rough and greedy, why

You'll make the little fairies cry.

"You have a new song!", Mauve remarked, as Willow spun in a circle and thrust the twig into Mauves hands. Mauve stroked the Catkins and Willow nodded, putting on as grave a face as he could manage. But then, when Mauve had laid down the twig, Willow grasped him by the hand and pulled him along, away from the Sallow Willows, away from the field, to the edge of the forest.

"How are you?", he asked happily.

"Great after seeing you!", Mauve laughed.

Willow looked around to his beloved circle of trees and then he cried:

"Let's find Heart's Ease and go on an adventure, okay?"

Mauve nodded wildly and they both entered the trees, where they here already looked more alive and as the leaves fluttered in the wind, and the earth stirred under their feet, they ran into the forest laughing and joking and looking forward to seeing there second friend again.

The Heart's–Ease Fairy:

The sun had risen fully up the eastern horizond and its shafts of light were playing on the many leaves of the beeches. They grew tall and elegant and around their stumps brambles tried to climb up them, but they never sucseeded. Along the many winding narrow paths ran Mauve and Willow never tirering to see a beetle on a bramble or to look above at the blue sky, shadowed by the many branches, but they never halted in their pace. At last they came to a clearing, around which the moss grew thick. Silver light was filtering through the leaves, alighting the aerthy ground within the clearing. There sat Heart's Ease next to an other pretty young girl, talking raptiorosly with her. Mauve and Willow clambered over the moss, slided down onto the earth and swam through the silvery light towards their friend. Now in the clearing the rest of the wood looked dark and dreary, perhaps it was also true, as the pine trees rose into the sky just behind Heart's Ease's sleeping place and Willow and Mauve looked upon them as they came towards the boy and girl, sitting on the ground. When Heart's Ease noticed them he sprang up immediately, ran towards them and greeted them. Then he turned and introduced them to the girl.

"Her name is May, my friends! She is lonely in her dark woods, where she is actually still meant to be sleeping till her month comes up, but she visits me sometimes for company!"

May did a little bow and smiled. She wore a green vest, her skirt was made of white petals and her thin legs were covered in green, as were her feet in green slippers. Her hair was rich and black, not long but very wavy. Her face was fair, a bit round, but her smile caused light to gather in the hearts of those who looked upon her. Her wings were very large, green tinged with two brown spots on the upper wing, for she had two on every side. Willow couldn't stop thinking that she must be able to fly. Beside her lay the branch of her flower, green, threefingered leaves, and white petals covered in orange spots. Many of the buds were yet cclosed, only a white dot upon the twig. She didn't say a word at first.

Mauve and Willow eyed her suspicously for their thought was that she was stealing Heart's Ease but she looked so innocently at them that the evil feeling vanished from mauve's mind. While he was content staring at her, Willow turned to his friend. Heart's Ease was of the age of Mauve, a very kindhearted boy who never said no wrong. His wings were colorful, the under ones green, the upper ones green and purple, the black veins quite clear inbetween. His head wore brown, hair, allmost as cearly as Mauve's, his face red, as were his lips and his eyes round and green. His vest was white but ar the edges it wore a faint purple color. The vest was tucked into his belt and was so long at the front and back that it allmost resembled a skirt. At the vests end, that went down to his legs the petal was orange and black stripes swam like tadpoals towards his belt. He too had green stockings and slippers in an even darker shade of green. His plant, with pointed leaves and a flower, that resembled his vest, was lying next to May's.

Mauve noticed this and remembered his sister and Colt's Foot laying there flowers next to eachother the year before. They had been togester after that. It was a quite significant sighn. But then, Mauve thought looking at May, maybe it was just a mistake. Heart's Foot would have told them, no matter how sleepy they would have been. He forced his stare onto his friends. Willow said excitedly:

"We're going to explore the inner woods and melt the snow, warm it up. Will you join us?"

Heart's Ease looked over to May. She smiled and nodded. Before running back into the forest, she turned and waved to the three of them crying in a clear voice:

"Bood-bye Heart's Ease. Good-bye Willow Catkin."

She turned and ran a few paces more. When she stood before the beds of moss she turned again and shouted:

"Good-bye Mauve!"

Mauve went quite pink, hoped the others wouldn't notice and they didn't. May scrambeled up the bed of moss. Before she vanished between the little hillocks she called:

"Until we meet again!"

Then she was gone. Heart's Ease smiled towards the place where she had vanished and remarked in an undertone:

"She's actually quite nice, you know!"

He stroked her branch, that she had brought as a present. Mauve stood quite still, taking in every word, that had been said. Willow figeted. He said:

"Let's go. I'm wild to live at last, after we have been as good as dead for months."

Heart's Ease laughed. Mauve nodded. He through an arm towards the darker pine trees and said:

"How about going in there?"

Willow shivered.

"It's dark and damp there is it not? And dangerous, two. Has not your sister forbidden you to go there?"

Mauve shook his head. He wanted to see the place where sun didn't go and looked forward to greeting the sun again when he came out. Heart's Ease gripped Willow's arm and pulled him towards the dark stretch of pines.

"What does it matter, Willow? We're together and nothing can happen to us! Let's go, as you said! And so that you don't shiver no more I will sing you the song of my bloom."

And so they all three climbed over the moss and into the pines. It was much darker than they had thought, it was like all hope had faided with the light, but they didn't look back, and climbed on, Heart's Ease singing merrily:

Like the richest velvet

(I'v heard the fairies tell)

Grow the handsome pansies

Within the garden wall;

When you praise their beauty,

Remember me as well ---

Think of little Heart's Ease,

The brother of them all!

Come away and seek me

When the year is young,

Through the open ploughlands

Beyond the garden wall;

Many names are pretty

And many songs are sung:

Mine – because I'm Heart's Ease –

Are prettiest of all!

The three of them slid down the moss and landed on the earth littered with pine needles.

"Well, I think my name is prettiest of all!", said Willow Catkin.

"Oh no, mine is much prettier!", said Mauve Crocus.

"All our names are prettiest for us!", said Heart's Ease.

The Wild Arum Fairy:

The three friends wandered through the dark woods, looking for spots of light between the pine branches but not finding any. The needles tickled their feet and flew into their eyes and occasionally they found a mouldy pine cone lying on the earth, ripped apart by the festering sqirrels. But apart from that they found nothing but silence. At first they broke it by laughing and singing, but even that died away as the silence fought in on them from every side. Now thew were going stealthily over the floor of needles, looking up at the roofes of the trees or about them, where the treetrunks barred their way. They did not see the sun creeping into the south and anouncing the afternoon. All they thought of was finding the sun, where ever it may be.

And so they came at last into a wind space, bare and flat covered in dry earth. But it was no clearing for the roof of branched still overhung it, long and dark and bare branches that seemed to crack and whisper above them. They walked out into the middle of the wide space and drew a circle looking around the trees with an uneasy feeling in their stomachs. Everywhere about them the wind had gone still, there were no bird shrieks and no swooshing of wings, they heared no rustling of little mice or rats and even the whispering branches stopped moaning, as the three stood there in tention, awaiting something to happen.

"I do not like this place!", Willow whispered.

"Nither do I!", answered Heart's Ease.

"Let's go from here!", said Mauve.

But as soon as all three had spoken they heared footsteps and turned to a wall of bare treetrunk. Around it came the figure of another fairy, tall and gaunt, with bare legs and a vicous smile on his face, hating eyes staring out of their sockets. The fairy man had two long, thin and dangling wings on every side, a worneout cap on his head and he had a brown sweatshert and shorts in the same earthy brown. His feet were bare and whipped up the dust as he came towards them, holding in his hand his flower, a green stem and an even darker wrinkled green leaf. There was no real flower to be seen, but the stem widenend at the end, it wrapped itself around a stin stalk of red.

The three boys felt immediately that this fairy felt disturbed and he was not pleased to see him. He didn't look as if he would have been pleased by the visit of anyone. He did not look as if he had or wanted any friends. His hands were wrenched around the thick stem of the plant, he was grinding his teeth and eying them suspiciously. He stoped a few feet away from them and intoned in a dark and damp voice, that fitted in with the eerie silence and the trees around him:

"What are you doing here, little beggars, bringers of foul sun and light. Do you want o disturb my rest? Do you want to have trouble laid on your heads? Do you not know that this part of the wood is forbidden to little brats like yourself, who think joy is the only feeling in life?"

They could not answer. All around them it had gone dark, darker thn ever before. It was like night had come suddenly upon them and they just moved closer togester, scarred looks on their faces as the fairy man came a step closer and began to sing. But his song was not beautiful, it was ful of grief and Unforbidding, it made their blood run cold, and their body shiver and the trees began to rustle and whisper again as the song grew to an allmighty wind.

Here's the song of Lords-and-Ladies

(in damp and shade he grows):

I have neither bells nor petals,

Like the Blubell or the rose.

Through the lengst and breadth of woods

Many flowers you may see –

Petals, bells, and cups in plenty –

But there's no one else like me.

In the hot-house dwells my kinsman,

Arum-lily, white and fine;

I am not so tall and stately,

But the quaintest hood is mine;

And my glossy leaves are fearful;

I've a spike to make you stare;

My berries are a glory in September.

BUT BEWARE!

"Than come out and bother us, when it is September!", intoned Mauve bravely, "if only then your berries may be pretty, for prettiness is what we fairies live for!"

Willow and Heart's Ease stared at these bold words, but they stood at either side of Mauve, waiting for the reaction of the singer. He came nearer and towered now above them, looking down on them with hate.

"How dare you say a thing as that to me, you little beggar. You, who has not learnt a thing and still believes whatever one tells him. You dare to anger me, the Wild Arum? Well, I will hear no apology for I will get my vengance for your words. You stand on my ground and my territiory, you are mine and these trees will hold you my captives if I beg them. You are lost forever, children!"

The sound of the crooing of the cuckoo flew through the air.

The Dog Violet Fairy:

But just as Wild Arum stepped up to Heart's Ease, Mauve and Willow, a ray of light fell onto the lowest branch of a nearby pine and alighted at the same time the figure of a boy. He swang down from the branch and landed elegantly between Arum and the three children. All four pairs of eyes stared at the graciously smiling young boy.

He had a purple cap pulled over the back of his head but lots of frilly, brown hair potruded from beneath it, flying around his face in a friendly manner. His eyes were shady blue and seemed to smile like his lips. He wore a long tunic of the same purple color as his cap, it was tucked under his thin, blue belt, so that it crinkled quite a lot beneath the belt. The tunic was cut in a v-shape, underneath it he wore a white vest with one single orange spot like a sun beneath his neck. His tights two were purple, but as it was fashion his slippers were the usual green.

Two mauve tinged wings stuck out at the sides, they were quite big and fluttered in an exspectant way. Willow noticed immidiatly, that the reason that this boy could land so gracefully, was because he could fly and the still fluttering wings prooved this thesis. In his hand he carried his flower, a very thing stalk with little diamond shaped laves and purple petalled blooms with orange fluff within. He held out his hand and spoke in a polite but decided manner:

"I don't think they're lost forever, yet, Arum. Now that I have found them, I think I can show them the way back to the beautiful sun, if you don't mind!"

Arum grinded his teeth even louder. His eyes very small, he murmered:

"Don't you play clever with me, Violet! Have I not told you to stay away from this part of the forest?"

Violet nodded happily and answered:

"Oh yes, you've told me, but you havn't told them three, have you? It would be very unfair to punish them after the first time, as you didn't punish me. Do you want them to think, that you prefer me?"

He allmost laughed, but kept his face straight with an enormous effort, trying to look cool and sinister. Suddenly the hearts of the three small boys felt lieghter, as they saw his smile, and they smiled themselves. Violet looked at them and then back to Wild Arum. Suddenly he broke into song, the melody washed away every dreary feeling the three boys had felt at entering the pine wood. It wasn't a long song, but it said everything Violet wanted to say.

The wren and robin hop around;

The Primrose-maids my neighbours be;

The sun has warmed the mossy ground;

Where Spring has come, I too am found:

The Cuckoo's call has wakened me!

Arum tred back and looked at Violet with disgust. Violet said:

"You should have known I would come, Arum, when the Cuckoos call. You heared it, didn't you? Well, you don't want to fight us four, do you?"

Arum stood still, as if petrified by the song, that was still hanging in the branches overhead. A wisp of wind fluttered through and the sun came fully into view as the branches parted. The sun carried all of the new beginning of the year with it and Heart's Ease cried:

"You are right, Violet. Spring has come, even if you havn't noticed it, Wild Arum. And with the sun on our backs we will not be afraid of you!"

Violet smiled. Arum cursed them under his breath and retreated behind the treestump, carrying his sharp spiked flower with him. Violet turned around to the three. They clapped and Willow cried:

"That was, oh, so great. Why is he scared of you, I wonder!"

Violet laughed.

"He is just as much afraid of me as he is of you. Just stand up to him next time and he will go! I learnt that long ago!"

Heart's Ease shuddered.

"I would rather there was no next time. I don't like this place!"

"You are right, of course!", Violet said, "Let us go back to the sun. Nosy you have been, and that is not a sin, but now let us be friendly again!"

They turned and left the clearing, running as fast as they could after Violet, who knew the quickest way out of the wood. Pine needles dropped from above, but nothing could harm them as they ran, they were looking forward too much to the sun.

"What may you're names be?", Violet puffed out of breath, halting as he reached a path, that dived away between the many trees.

"Heart's Ease!", said Heart's Ease.

"I am Mauve Crocus, but just call me Mauve!", said Mauve.

"My name is Willow Catkin, but everyone just calls me Willow", said Willow and then he added, "could you teach me how to fly?"

He blushed a little, but Violet smiled, his wings rusteled and he said:

"I will bring you to the big stone at the entrance of the wood and there I will teach you with pleasure!"

They ran along the path until eventually they reached the edge of the wood. The sun through its whole light on them again, before them the meadows stretched into the distance and the smell of flowers delighted their noses. Now they saw a big round, grey stone lying next to the rim of beech trees. Violet fluttered up upon he (Willow sighed with admiration) and than he pulled them up one by one onto the stone. They sat there, warmed by the sun and were silent for a couple of muinutes, each one trayling his own thoughts.

Then Violet stood up and cried:

"Then show me what you can do, Willow!"

Willow sighed and mumbeled:

"Nothing, I fear. I am hopelessly untalented and I would so love to fly like the other Fairies."

Mauve and Heart's Ease stroked his shoulder, knowing how sad he was about it. They were no flying fairies, never having the need to be hiegh up from the ground, but they pitied their friend a lot. Violet said:

"So you don't even know how it feels to be up in the air?"

Willow shook his head saddly. Violet smiled encouragengly and cried:

"Don't fret. You are still small. I have not been able to fly for long, and I must have started at your age. Say, how old are you?"

"Six!", Willow said.

Violet intoned:

"See? I am allmost twelve now so it took me five years to learn. And I had no help. But I will give you help!"

Willow looked up and the happinbess returned to his heart. Violet looked at him closely, his eyes fixed on his. Then he held out his arms and said:

"What is more, I will show you how wonderful it is and give you more determination with that!"

"How?", Mauve, Heart's Ease and Willow asked together.

But Violet didn't answer. He took both Willows arms, and hoisted him around his waist.

"Hold on tight!", he demanded.

Before they knew it, Violet had soured up into the air. It was a wonderful feeling. As Violet skimmed over the grass, turned sommersaults and dived and span up again in spirels, Willow felt the wind rushing against his face and smelt the flowers more strongly than ever in the air. Colors swooshed past him, as Violet went higher and higher, beating his wings furilously. Willow saw woods and meadows from above and his two friends down below clapping wildly. Violet dived down in full speed and landed smoothly upon the stone. Willow slid of him and took a deep breath of air.

"Amazing!", he whispered.

"Is it not?", laughed Violet, shaking his brown hair, "that's what you're going to learn as quick as you can!"

Willow, beside himself with happiness, repeated stoutly:

"As quick as I can!"

The Windflower Fairy:

Colt's Foot and Yellow Crocus wandered through the forest, hands clasped tightly together. Colt's Foot looked around interested and up to the sky, but Yellow stayed close at his side and felt threatened by the dark trunks of the Oaks and Larches. Sometimes Fairies called down to them from up in the roofs of trees, sounded either melancholy or good humoured. Suddenly the sun broke through the clouds and alighted the peaks of the trees and filtered through onto the damp earth and the bristling weeds. Colt's Foot and Yellow left the dear path and went around a cluster of bushes. Behind it they found a open clearing, glowing with light, lined with a row of Larch trees, in which little holes had been carved, where the Fare Fairies lived. Some that lived there belonged to the Tree Family, and there were even a few of the Bell Family.

In ancient time, there had been only eight Families, and only those, that still had the royal marks of one of these eight Families was ever allowed to rule over the forest and its creatures. Of course, there was only a handful left of these Families, most Fairies didn't belong to any Race anymore. The Bell and the Tree Family were only two of the eight, but they had lost there royalties. Nowadays it was the Cup Family that ruled, but there were roomers that the Rose Family were taking over, led by Rett Rose and his wife Rosalie. Because of the Families there were many disputes and good friends had found themselves rivals, as every Flower Fairy had to stand up for one Family, even if hew didn't belong to it, and the Fairy Folk had different ideas as to how the Forest should be ruled. There were some who preferred freedom and justice, as the Ruler Family had always tried to uphold, but there were also some who thought that the Folk needed more rules, so as to live in Peace with each other. Each of the royal Families had their own party of followers and without it being noticed the Rose Families Party was growing and the Forest rules were changing.

Before the holes of the Fare Fairies, the clearing was strewn with light earth and over it a girl was dancing, more beautiful than the sun itself could dance. She skipped and spun across the ground, her light purple wrinkled dress flying about her. She shook her long, brown flowing hair, that glittered in the breeze and her brown eyes were deep like the earth itself. She wore a green shawl around her breast tugged together in the shape of an X. The shawl fell down her back and skimmed after her, while she danced. Her wings were of a dark and light brown, patched like butterfly wings and fluttering gently in the breeze. In her hand she too held her flower, a long red stalk with many sharp, green leaves, like fingers and on top the magnificent white star of petals with a yellow bush in the middle. As she danced, she sang her song, a melody like the rushing streams, flowing like her hair and making every muscle in ones own body wanting to dance with her.

While human-folk slumber,

The fairies espy

Stars without number

Sprinkling the sky.

The winters long sleeping,

Like night-time, is done;

But day-stars are leaping

To welcome the sun.

Star-like they sprinkle

The wild wood with light;

Countless they twinkle –

The Windflowers white!

When she saw Colt's Foot and Yellow she hardly halted, but sprang over to them and spoke, still in a voice full of the leaping melody:

"Hello, Yellow Crocus and Hello Colt's Foot. How nice it is to see the sun and the fairies awake again after the long and dreary winter. I just had to dance and sing again!"

Yellow smiled graciously.

"It is true. Just this morning my brother woke me up and all the Crocus Fairies sang and danced like a flock of bees."

Windflower said dreamily:

"I would have loved to see it. It is so seldom that we Fairies dance together, you know. It must have been wonderful!"

Yellow said nothing, for she knew that everybody fell into trance seeing Windflower dance, but Windflower never spoke of this and she did not love being praised, for she was a nice and helpful girl, who loved life in a way, that didn't make her more important than others. She had many admirers, but the girls never resented her for that, as she did not use them in any way for her own profit. Colt's Foot just smiled silently, while Yellow and Windflower exchanged the latest news, as girls like to do in our world as well.

"I have noticed the signs!", Windflower sighed, "not everything is pointing like the sun in a good direction this spring. We can only hope, that most of the fairies still know where there hearts are to be found and that no one will be deceived into treachery against the Cup Family."

Yellow nodded.

"I heard already last year, before I went to bed, that Bluebell is getting together with the older Rose daughter. Is it true?"

"I do not know!", said Windflower shrugging, "we will have to wait and see, won't we. It would be a loss if it were, I might say!"

The Speedwell Fairy:

Just then a crack came from above and between Windflower and Yellow and Colt's Foot a boy of their own age landed, grinning broadly, seeming to have childish pranks in mind. His suit was entirely green, except for his blue shoes, and blue was his cap as well, with only a green rim. Big blue petals hung around his waist and his wings were shiny and see-through. He had a lot of brown, shiny hair under his cap, falling over his bright blue, just as shiny eyes. In his hands he carries a green stalked flower, with small, rags for leaves and just as small blue petals. He laughed broadly and took Windflowers hand and kissed it, going into a bow at the same time, so that his backside almost bumped against the two fairies behind him.

"See there, Windflower. Already up, you pretty maiden. And I dare say it is true, that Bluebell is going out with Rose. Fits with him, doesn't it. He always wanted to be in a high position, but being a Bell didn't seem to be enough for him. Damn him, arrogant Swine!"

"Don't talk like that, Speedwell!", Windflower said in a preaching manner, but smiling to herself all the same. She pulled away her hand and asked:

"And where are your friends, may I ask? You wouldn't be around without them now, would you!"

Speedwell attended to the bidding immediately and whistled through his forefinger and thumb. At this clear note, the bracken behind them cracked and a boy stepped from between the twigs and up above them the shrill whistle was heard again and through the roof of leaves and branches another figure fell, landing smoothly next to Speedwell. The two Newcomers greeted Yellow and Colt's Foot airily, than turned to Windflower and fixed their whole attention on her.

"May I bid you a fond greeting among the Fare Fairies!", said Larch, but laughter choked what he wanted to add to his greeting.

"Oh, sun I have seen, but nothing is its light towards you!", spoke Dandelion, bowing deeply.

Windflower neither blushed nor said a word, but she looked at the three boys, eyebrows raised. The two new ones, Speedwells Clique, both carried no Flower with them, but it did not change the way they laughed and were merry between each other.

Dandelion wore yellow stockings and his slippers had two white tussles on them, like the tussles of older Dandelion. Over the stockings he had a pair of shorts, wide and striped in green and yellow. His vest had the same sunlit colour, it ended around his vest in lots of ragged tussles. The short arms of the shirt were covered in the same yellow and green stripes as his shorts and from underneath the vest a green arms-length of shirt appeared. His wings were yellow and black, and reached high up over his head, being fixed between his shoulder blades. He wore a sheepish wide smile and brown, wild hair, even when he didn't move, it would not hang down, but fly in every direction, covering his brown eyes.

Larch now was different, his skin was paler, his face looked younger, as he was younger, too. His orange-blond hair was also not tameable, it did not fly around him, though, but stuck up towards the branches, as if it was being pulled up by an invisible cord, and it curled at the ends. He had four wings, see-through, with every black vane audible. His legs and arms were bare, he only wore a pink suit with shorts and vest, made like many petals sticking together with a yellow stripe on every petal. His mouth was mostly to be found wide open, either in amazement or in boredom. His big, round ears, behind which the strands of hair were tucked, heard many things, when he was hanging in the treetops of the Larches. Windflower knew him well, as he was her neighbour and belonged to the Tree Family.

Now the two of them stood there. Larch said, in a tone that wasn't normal for a noble birth:

"Bluebell is using Roses love to become the Ruler of our land, Windflower. Don't tell us not to speak of him in a way that fits him entirely!"

Windflower answered back:

"Well it doesn't fit you, Larch, you belong to a noble Family!"

Larch laughed.

"So does Bluebell and he never acts noble, he only acts to suit himself!"

Dandelion shook his head and said in a voice dripping with sarcasm:

"Now, now, Larch. We don't want to speak of a fellow fairy like that, do we?"

Larch tapped the ground with his bare feet and nodded. Speedwell had been gazing at his friends, but now he said somewhat angry:

"Boys, you are stealing my moment here. I am just about to ask Windflower to the ball, and you come butting in!"

"You called us!", cried Larch unimpressed.

"Now she's heard anyway!", grinned Dandelion.

Windflower went between them and said icily:

"I can't remember allowing you to listen to what Yellow and I were talking about. It was private girls talk, you know!"

The three boys looked at her with a mildly stunned expression and then to the place in the shadow were Yellow and Colt's Foot were still standing in silence, acknowledging once again, that they faded away like the light in the evening whenever Windflower was around.

"He's allowed to listen!", said Speedwell, pointing at Colt's Foot.

"Well!", said Windflower, "that's a different case. He is going out with Yellow!"

"Well!", Speedwell repeated, "You go out with me and everything is settled."

Windflower looked Speedwell up and down, from his brown, elegantly combed hair and eager face to his in dance well trained feet.

"I'd rather not!", she said.

Dandelion and Larch burst out laughing and Speedwell looked at her indignantly.

"Oh come on. The ball will be held soon and I need to go with some one! You have to, as well. None will want to miss you dancing. Why then not pick me?"

And suddenly he burst out into a lively song, which was punctured though, by Dandelion and Larches undying laughs.

Clear blue are the skies;

My petals are blue;

As beautiful, too,

As bluest of eyes.

The heavens are high:

By the field-path I grow

Where wayfarers go,

And "Good Speed", say I;

"See here is a prize

Of wonderful worth:

A weed of the earth,

As blue as the skies!"

Windflower waited for him to end, and when he had lowered his arms again from his singing position she said sweetly:

"I am looking forward to the ball, but I will go there as single, as I have always done. Thank you, Speedwell!"

Speedwell opened his mouth and shut it again. Larch roared with laughter.

"That's the fourth time she's rejected you, Speedwell. Don't you realise she just doesn't fancy you?"

Speedwell looked at him threateningly, than said in a much lighter tone, than one might have expected:

"No, I don't realise. I thought you knew me well enough by now!"

Suddenly Windflower asked:

"Where has Violet got to? Isn't he always with you three?"

Larch, Dandelion and Speedwell looked at each other.

"He should be!", said Dandelion with a slight note of dissatisfaction in his voice, "but either he has not woken up yet, which means he overslept our general spring meeting or he has decided to find new friends!"

"Oh, forget it!", Larch intoned, "come on, boys, let's go, and ask some other girls. We don't want to turn up without partners, do we?"

They all nodded and bayed the three others farewell until they should meet again at the ball, before they ran back through the bracken, Larch fluttering up into the air and jumping from branch to branch.

Windflower sighed.

"Those three are such a show!", she murmured.

The Bluebell Fairy:

Windflower turned to Yellow and Colt's Foot and suggested:

"How about coming into my Hollow and drinking a cup of Honey Tea?"

Yellow inclined her head, though Colt's Foot did not seem so delighted, he did not like company and talk so very much. But before he could utter a word, a Fairy girl appeared at Windflowers hollow entrance up in the tree trunk, a face sparkling with tears, red cheeks, and the saddest eyes Yellow had ever seen. Her hair was brown, though it seemed at patches to be fading. She had quite large wings, tinged in yellow with little black spots at the edges of the upper wing, but they drooped down in a melancholy way. Her legs and feet were bare for she wore a skirt made of many long yellow petals next to each other and over that she had a green vest, that was cut in petal form across her skirt. She held her flower with very large green leaves and many long yellow petals with yellow buds in her hand and looked at them solemnly. Windflower climbed up to her, but just as she wanted to introduce her to her friends, she murmured:

"I think I will go now, Windflower! Thank you for your kindness!"

And she ran past Colt's Foot and Yellow, shading her eyes, for tears were trickling down them again. Colt's Foot looked after her astonished, a faded Fairy, that could have been beautiful, if she honoured herself more. Windflower explained:

"She's very sad, Celandine here. Feels that nobody likes her, because she has no friends. She came up to me this morning, crying her heart out. But I should not tell you that, she wouldn't like it! Now come up, will you?"

Yellow pulled Colt's Foot along, but he tugged back and said in a low voice:

"I think I should better go now. You have a lot to say to each other, but it doesn't interest me and Speedwell is right in saying that no boy should be allowed to hear your talk."

Yellow sighed. Why did he always hide his face in public? But she said:

"Then go. Until we meet again, Colt's Foot!"

"Until we meet again, Yellow Crocus!", he repeated, let go of her hand and went slowly back into the woods behind them. Windflower asked:

"Is he always that shy?"

"He is!", Yellow answered and with that she climbed up the tree trunk to where Windflower was standing before the entrance to her hole, called a hollow by the Fairies.

Meanwhile Speedwell, Larch and Dandelion ran along, flecks of gold and blue and brown in the watery sun, one springing from branch to branch, one flitting over the ground and one scrambling through bushes and brambles and getting tied up regularly in knots of grass. They came out into the meadows littered with blue flowers, sparkling like the sky. Here they looked around spying and sheepish, until they heard the song of a high-pitched, tender voice. They grinned at each other and mimed sticking their fingers in their ears and vomiting. Then they looked up once into the Clearblue sky as if awaiting an order from the sun and quickly turned to the clump of Bluebells from which the high ring of song came. Here the peeped through the grass and spied the one, they had just been arguing about, Bluebell himself, young Roses love and with that heir to the thrown, as everybody knew, that the Roses were taking over. But this change was not looked upon friendly, especially by Speedwell and his friends who regarded the Ruler Family as the only one that deserved the crown and the right to look after woods and meadows.

Bluebell was a tall young man of eighteen, rather thin, but well groomed. Around his brown hair, that curled only at the ends he wore a thin thread of pearls and his face was fare an white, with only pink spots on either cheek. He stood in a very erect way and would have been the love of all the girls in the forest, were it not for his rather arrogant nature and his self-loving mind. He wore a long blue tunic, covered by a green petal robe, almost like armour, curving at his thighs to the right an left. Around it he had struck a broad, blue belt and it was sown together at the top by thin strands of grass. The blue tunic beneath it was long and curly at the ends, falling over the back of his hands in a most elegant way. His stockings were silver, just as his shoes, though they were of a darker touch and his wings were long and a pale violet, rimmed in a dark grey. As all other fairies he carried a stem of his flower with all the glittering bulbs at the top, blue trumpets curved into many ways at the ends. He was in every way a most respectable figure and the Rose family may have endeared in giving their daughter such a husband.

He was singing at the top of his voice and looking into a mirror of water drops all the time, letting his hands rise and fall, in a manner which showed, that he was practising for the oncoming ball. His voice was high and straight, it rang in the ears of those who listened (who happened to be Speedwell, Larch and Dandelion) but it could not be called beautiful, as was Windflowers, or melancholy as was Colt's Foot's or threateningly like Wild Arum's or Happy as the Crocuses Song. It was noble, it was a triumphant song, like the ring of the trumpets of his own flower, the Bluebell.

My hundred thousand bells of blue,

The splendour of the spring,

They carpet all the woods anew

With royalty and sapphire hue;

The Rose is the Queen, 'tis true.

But surely I am King!

Ah yes,

The peerless Woodland King!

Loud, loud the thrushes sing their song;

The bluebell woods are wide;

My stems are tall and straight and strong;

From ugly places fairies thong,

To stare at mine, so great, so long,

Then around I troop in pride –

Ah yes,

With laughter and with pride!

He had set about for a new verse, but the three onlookers could stand it no more; they burst from the bulk of grass and stood there in a row, gazing angrily at Bluebell, who turned in surprise to meet them.

"The splendour of the spring, you say?", said Speedwell in a note of ringing pain.

"Ugly you call us?", said Larch, his eyes sharp and small, "with pride you walk, you think?"

"You see yourself as King?", ended up Dandelion, his voice hissing with anger.

"Well, guess what!", they all three said together, "we don't agree with you!"

Bluebell was now rather angry himself at being overheard an scowled at by a pair of run away boys.

"I don't think it is any of your business, to…", he began, but Speedwell choked his words.

"None of our business, you say? Well, it is our business. If you become king, we are the ones who have to live with the terror of your rulership, so I daresay it is our business!"

Bluebell shook his head mildly.

"I may yet say that I am not king, and as long as I am not, you have no right to take any particular interest in me."

"You take particular interest in Princess Rose to become king!", muttered Larch, loud enough for Bluebell to hear him.

Bluebell writhed in anger at these words, he stuck out his chest and cried:

"I show not love to anybody without feeling that true love myself. Out! Out or I will report to your father, Larch, how you have been mistreating your high position!"

Larch did not care for his position, but he consented to flock out anyway, after his two friends. Bluebell watched them go, than he turned again and though to himself:

"They will very soon be sorry for there brutal words."

The Cowslip Fairy:

14


End file.
